Voting and Linkage Institutions (Essay 6)

    Voting is the most common way of people communicating with the government. However, an increasing number of people are not voting as often; this has two factors, age and the type of education the person recieved. Some government programs are also decreasing voter turnout, but linkage institutions are fighting back for a higher turnout.

    Age and education play great roles in the probability of voter turnout. It has been proven that older people, over the age of sixty-five, vote more than people under the age of twenty-one, also known as the young people. The middle aged people vote, but it is not of great interest since the rates continue on a similar, unmoving, trend. People with a college education are more likely to vote than those who only graduated from high school. The principles are true, however voters can be different from what has been said about them. If an older person didn't graduate from college, he or she still has a higher probability of voting more often.    

    The requirement of people to register to vote before Election day decreases voter turnout. It takes too much time, and is inconvenient for the working class and young people. However, old people who are retired have the luxury of bring able to register during the odd hours registration is open, which may be a cause of the higher voter turnout for older people. 

    Another linkage institution besides the government is an interest group. It connects people to the government by addressing issues that truly matter to the people. They also provide a voice for the people who don't have the power or money to create change on their own. Voting is important, but interest groups provide changes all throughout the year, not just on certain days at a voting booth.

There are many correlations between characteristics of people and voting patterns. Older people tend to vote more than young people, and highly educated people tend to vote more than uneducated people. This is common sense, but the government is at fault as well. They are enabling the older people to vote by writing guidelines that better fit older people than younger people. If we truly want to have a democratic government, rules need to be out in place to give everyone an equal opportunity to vote, no matter what type of person.